A Score for the Outdoors: A Study of Hayao Miyazaki's Environmentalism and Joe Hisaishi's Score in Princess Mononoke

This honors thesis explores the role of composer Joe Hisaishi’s score in relation to director Hayao Miyazaki’s environmental perspective in Princess Mononoke (1997). Miyazaki’s belief that, regardless of the target audience, a story cannot be told without presenting “the ecological issues”[1] leads to the production of films that have rhetoric in support of environmental appreciation and conservation embedded throughout. When read through an environmentalist lens, Princess Mononoke becomes a critique of “human-centric” thinking, instead supporting an ideology similar to “deep ecology,” which considers humans to be intrinsically linked to nature. Despite Hisaishi and Miyazaki’s close collaboration that leads to a diffusion of ideas between animation and music, there is little scholarly material studying how the soundtracks of Studio Ghibli movies play a role in communicating the director’s intentions to the viewer. Distribution rights for Studio Ghibli films have also increased in the Western world, allowing more people to find it through streaming services or theatrical re-release. Since many are already accustomed to the Princess Mononoke, they will be able to find greater appreciation for the subject. [1] Hayao Miyazaki, Turning Point, 1997–2008, trans. by Beth Cary and Frederick L. Schodt (Viz Media, 2014), 62.